Talk the talk - Walk the walk

Last week Dawud at HealthyWebdesign started two interesting conversations on almost the same subject: "5 things marketing gurus need to learn from bloggers" and "Who else wants to be an Expert?" or why does it seem that only marketing gurus or someone who calls him/herself an expert are believed to know what to do, how to solve all business problems.

It might be a coincidence, but at the moment I'm reading "The Knowing-Doing Gap" by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I Sutton, the authors of: "Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and  Total Nonsense" (See my review here). The subtitle is "How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action".
And it's great! Some times I even laugh out loud (which frequently startles my partner). Pfeffer and Sutton do have a way with words, explaining in very vivid and 'visual' sentences the essence of the issue (and in a humorous way too, or is that just my kind of 'humour'?)

Some examples:

"Talking smart and being smart are far from perfectly correlated"

"..not only does this [a consultant advising a plant manager 'earns' twice as much as plant manager] pose an interesting career choice, it sends a message about the value the economy places on being able to actually run something compared with being able to talk about running something."

I am enjoying this book tremendously and once finished I will write my 'normal' review as soon as possible.

Comments

[Dawud Miracle]

Thanks for the mention, Karin. You brought up The Knowing-Doing Gap on my site. As someone with no lack of ideas, I'm definitely going to take a look at it.

[Karin H.]

Hi Dawud

Oh you should, definitely. It's got me hooked!

[Mike]

Karin,

The reason consultants are paid twice as much as plant managers is that they are generally used as weapons in turf wars between management groups, and everyone knows you don't skimp on weaponry in a fight to the death! ;-)

[Karin H.]

Hi Mike

You should really read "The Knowing-Doing Gap", then you see why turf wars between managements groups are even more disastrous for a company than paying over the odds for a consultant (who only talks the talk and doesn't make you walk the walk)!

But in the main stream normal company practice you are absolutelt right of course ;-)

[Mike]

Hi Karin,

I DO know the cost of management turf wars, unfortunately from personal experience (as principal and consultant). That's one of the reasons I am such a big fan of "Good to Great" and the concepts therein; especially "First Who, Then What"! And I'm not afraid to walk the walk in that regard.

Cheers,

Mike

[Karin H.]

Hi Mike

Am a great fan of Good to Great too (very much so, that when I'm reading other business advice books I see links back it it alomost every time.
As for walk the walk, (or should it be walk the talk?) personally I think I'm getting there ;-)